Two systems for thinking about others’ thoughts in the developing brain
2020; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 117; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1073/pnas.1916725117
ISSN1091-6490
AutoresCharlotte Grosse Wiesmann, Angela D. Friederici, Tania Singer, Nikolaus Steinbeis,
Tópico(s)Memory and Neural Mechanisms
ResumoSignificance The ability to reason about other people’s thoughts and beliefs characterizes the complex social interaction among humans. This ability, called Theory of Mind (ToM), has long been argued to develop around 4 y when children start explicitly reasoning about others' beliefs. However, when tested nonverbally, infants already show action expectations congruent with others’ beliefs before the age of 2 y. Do these behaviors reflect different systems for understanding others’ minds—an early and a later developing one—or when does ToM develop? We show that these abilities are supported by the maturation of independent brain networks, suggesting different systems for explicit verbal ToM and early nonverbal action expectations.
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